Tuesday, May 18, 2010

So I played my very first ever 'Ard Boyz last Saturday, and for having no clue what to expect, I did pretty well. On to recaps!

As I walked in the door of Parker, Banner, Kent, and Wayne Saturday morning, just in time to be fashionably late, I noticed that we only had 8 attendees. Looked like people had gone out of their way to not be at 'Ard Boyz this year. I brought the Daemonhunters, as a friend in the gaming club had asked to borrow all the Eldar stuff I would've brought. Who would've thought? Anyways, my list looked something like this:

'Lo and behold, the first person I drew to play was the very person that borrowed my Eldar! He had 2 Seer Councils, jetikes, storm guardians, reapers, rangers, a war walker, and 2 squads of Fire dragons: totaling up to 5 wave serpents!

I won the dice roll thanks to the Tarot, and passed first turn to him. He placed his Serpents as close to the deployment line as he could, putting the rangers, bikes, and war walker in reserve, and reapers taking cover on he left side of his deployment zone. I reserved my sentinels, deployed my Land Raiders on the right-hand side, terminators in tow. Leman russes were about midfield, back on the table edge, covered by Rhinos, and the chimeras were on the left. Inquisitors half-hid on a hill in my zone, almost in the back corner. I failed to sieze the initiative, and his first turn began.

Turn one caught me completely off guard. He turbo-boosted all(!) of his Wave serpents into the front of my army. there was no way I could get out of there. some ineffective shooting at my inquisitors, then my turn began. I shot down a Wave serpent housing dragons, but that was pretty much it.

Turn two decided the game. His jetbikes and rangers came in and hung out, turboboosting and running towards the nearest piece of terrain respectively. The rangers didn't make it. He disembarked everything, killed both my Inquisitors retinues, and assaulted my Leman Russes, destroying all but on of them, and leaving the last one without the battle cannon. Also on the death toll were:1 Land Raider, 1 Rhino, and 2 Chimeras. OUCH!My turn 2 consisted of busting transports to stop his mobility from getting the rest of my army in clean up. I busted 3 serpents, killed the fire dragons that destroyed the raider in assault, and generally fled with the remains of my army. I killed 3 rangers with autocannon fire, and they failed their morale check, falling back almost off the table.

turns 3 and 4 were about the same, him cleaning up everything near the crater that was once my deployment zone, while what was left of my army skirted the edges of his army. Turn 5 was our last, as we ran out of time after it was over. He spread out, taking 4 of the objective, 3 of which with his jetbikes, and the last covered by his storm guardians in his remaining serpent. my turn consisted of moving my raider forward, disembarked, and barely made the assault into the jetbikes, killing all of them, and making 4 objectives into 2. He got 19 points.

Current Battle Points: 4Current Victory Points: 1502

We later learned that ours was the bloodiest of all the games.

Match 2: Ultramarines

Match 2 saw me up against an Ultramarines army. The player had just returned from a 2 year hiatus, and didn't know some of the finer rules. Once again, I won the roll off, but this time I took first turn. I deployed my Inquisitors in my single terrain feature(building) in the deployment zone, and branched out my army: Chimera, Rhino, and leman russes on the right, and raiders, chimera, rhino on the left. He deployed his ENTIRE foot slogging section inside his single terrain piece (crater), and My leman russes' job was set: shell it until they were gone. Razorback, rhino, bikes, and dread hung near the back corner, and assault squad and terminators reserved for deep strike. He infiltrated his scouts into the building on my left. he failed to seize, and i took my first turn.

Leman Russes moved more to the right, taking a backline seat as the rest of my army made the beggining advances behind the land raiders. I then proceeded to shell his base, killing 13 marines and forcing 4 morale checks. I weapon destroyed, immobilized, and shook his dreadnought, essentially leaving it out of the fight. not too much more damage was done on my part. His first turn consisted of regrouping a squad and busting a rhino.

Turns 2-6 were a slaghterfest. I don't remember all the details, except the fact that I tabled him, getting 3 of 4 possible table quarters.

Current Battle Points: 27Current Victory Points: 3998

Match 3: Daemons

This was the matchup I was wanting on the game I didn't want; modified kill points. With a possible 35 kill points in my army, I didn't want to see all my lovely tanks destroyed.

I lost the roll o go first, but was passed it. I deployed my chimeras left, Land raiders right, russes in the middle with their backs covered by my rhinos, and inquisitors in about the center. He chose not to seize and I spent my first turn getting my russes as close to the center as possible, and my raiders swooping far out to the right. Chimeras fell in line behind the rhinos. His first turn saw Fateweaver, a Lord of change, 3 squads of Pink Horrors, and a Daemon Prince coming down. The only thing close enough to bombard was the Lord, and I took advantage of that, putting 3 wounds on it from the get-go. He did no damage in his turn.

Turn 2 had my Sentinels coming in on the right and shooting at Fateweaver, putting a wound on him. I spread out, killing the daemon prince with plasma guns, the LoC with my psycannons, and another wound on Fateweaver with my russes. Land raiders only had room to shoot Pinks. His turn 2 brought down another daemon prince, 2 squads of flamers, and another squad of pinks. He destroyed a squad of stormtropers, a russ, destroying the sentinels, and shook the rhinos and the other 2 russes.

Turn 3 was the deciding turn. I pushed into his force with the raiders, disembarking the terminators, and assaulting three squads of pinks and a squad of flamers. All this was just after killing the fateweaver. That combat held till the last turn. The rest of his stuff came in on his turn, killing both my inquisitors and most of my veterans. turns 4, 5, and 6 were mop up, and all he had left at the end of the game was the Changeling and a single horror.

Final Battle Points: 50Final Victory Points: 6392

Overall netting was third: First place was the Mechdar player I'd played in round one with 57. Second was a different Daemons list than the one I played.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of Underrated Units with Scribbles. This will be a tactica on units that are generally considered to be "not worth their points costs", and ways to make them useful, or at east more useful then they are. This week: Swooping Hawks.

My Thoughts: I love Swooping Hawks. They are one of the few (if not the only) Aspects that serve a dual role, in this case slaying hordes of light infantry and busting vehicles. They took a big hit in the new codex with the loss of the Web of Skulls, but other than that got a huge boost in ability.

The internet says that there is only two ways to run this Aspect:

1) Don't.

2) Minimal squad with an Exarch with Skyleap. Then just keep yo-yoing them until the game ends.

This is a terrible way to look at a squad with so much potential. Why not utilize them for what they're great at?

Try taking a squad of 10, with an Exarch, Skyleap, Intercept, and a Sunrifle. Deep Strike them in about 16 inches away from an isolated squad, soften it up with the template, then blast away with your lasblasters. With Doom support, you'll likely take a large enough toll on whatever you shot at to minimize casualties on a counter attack, and with a 19-24" threat bubble, enemy tanks won't want to get near them. Use this threat bubble to your advantage, by harassing the outskirts of your opponents army and funneling them into the bulk of your warhost. If they ever get stuck in over their heads, use Skyleap to get them out of harm's way, then bring them back in where they'll be safe.

If they have broken and are fleeing to your table edge, use Skyleap and return to reserves. It's a free regroup, and will work even if you're under half strength to get them back into the fight, ensuring your opponent will have to commit to destroying the whole squad.

What are your thoughts about new and interesting ways to use Swooping Hawks?

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Well, the first of the Wave Serpents is done. I'm fairly pleased, but I do regret starting with Sunburst Yellow. I think I may do a 50/50 Golden/Sunburst mix from now on, but more on that later. Here's the pics:

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Scribbles here with my first project: The Wave Serpent. The primary transport of the Eldar warhost, this sleek tank is the most common one seen on the battlefield today. So as my first project, I shall paint all four of mine.

The one on the left is the first to be painted, and I shall have close up pics ready for the completion post.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Iyanden: The Light in the Darkness. The flickering flame on the verge of suffocation. No other craftworld more accurately shows the true peril the entire Eldar race have forced upon themselves.

This once great and populous craftworld has been laid low by the seemingly endless swarm that are known as the Tyranids. Locked in a constant fight for survival, they have had no choice but to pull the dead from the Infinity Circuits, and inter them into bodies capable of battle. In this way, they have survived, and as the generations dwindle, and more Eldar leave the mortal coil, the dead are returned to service, so the living may continue to fight.

Hi there everyone. My name is Scribbles, and this blog is going to begin as my commitment to painting my Eldar. I will post pics every now and again, and as I complete them, battle reports will become the norm. Heck, I may even throw in some tacticas and the such if I get enough followers.